


A Place of Honor

by swiftishere



Series: MSA One-Shots [29]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Ghost!Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Kidnapping, Memory Loss, Multi, Role Swap, arthur gets girl in a box'd, as is your wont, lewthur/lewvithur can be interpreted as platonic or romantic, mystery's just doing his best man shit's bad out here, references to hospitalization and disassociation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28026606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftishere/pseuds/swiftishere
Summary: At the cave, it isn't Lewis, but Vivi who goes alone with Arthur, up to that damned cliff. When the demon wraps its poisonous threads around his heart, and reaches for the nearest victim, it's her who takes the fall.A week later, Arthur goes missing as well, leaving behind only a chill and frost that the late-summer heat can't get rid of.Missing his two best friends, and unable to even remember one, Lewis finds himself drifting - until Mystery demands he follow him somewhere, claiming it's somethingimportant.
Relationships: Arthur & Lewis & Mystery & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur & Lewis & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur/Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Arthur/Lewis/Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Series: MSA One-Shots [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440190
Comments: 15
Kudos: 66





	A Place of Honor

How long has it been since Arthur went missing? A few weeks? A month? Longer? Time is hard to keep track of now. He’s staying with his parents again, because it’s even harder to stay present at his and Arthur's house, but he feels extraneous and aimless. Like he’s meant to be somewhere else, doing a different job. His mind is full of questions for himself he can’t answer – most of all, the one that haunts him and drives him crazy is _why_ he and Arthur ever went to that godforsaken cave in the first place. What would ever have dragged them in there, when neither were particularly adventure-seeking, he couldn’t fathom. And yet they’d still been there, and Arthur had still lost an arm, and only a few days later he’d vanished from his hospital bed, leaving behind only a shattered window and a bizarre frost that the late-summer heat couldn’t get rid of. 

No leads. Everyone had been baffled. They'd been forced to close the case for a lack of evidence. He'd just... disappeared.

There's a part of Lewis, and he has _no_ idea where it's coming from because it isn't something he thought he'd ever consider, that wants to go look for him on his own. Just pack up the van _~~not his van where did it come from why does it sit outside his house now~~_ and take off, go searching for him.

He doesn't even know how he'd go about it. But the itch, for some reason, is there.

At least Mystery has been a comfort throughout all of this. He can't remember for the life of him where he came from, but it must have been recent - adopted by him and Arthur, it must have been, only a short while before... before everything. And yet he feels more _familiar_ than that somehow. And he has soft fur and a level head, and he's been wonderfully comforting throughout everything, even if he won't meet his eyes sometimes when they discussed the cave. He grounds him somehow when the rest of the world doesn't, and he's kept him from many an anxious spiral about what happened to Arthur, over the... however long it's been.

There's a scratch at the side door, jolting him out of his thoughts. With some alarm he realizes he's just been sitting at the kitchen table, staring off into space, for who knows how long. The mug of hot chocolate in his hands is cold now.

Another scratch makes him frown and get up. He pads over to find Mystery standing there.

"Lewis," says Mystery, and once again, the thought _huh, that's weird_ flits through his mind for only a moment before he dismisses it. Of course Mystery talks. Why wouldn't he?

His expression now is carefully watchful, his snout bobbing slightly as he looks him up and down. "There's something I need your help with. Come with me."

He blinks and tries to think about that. "What for?"

"It's important. Please." His head twitches to look behind him.

"...Alright, I guess. Let me grab a coat first."

His ears flick, but he doesn't say anything.

* * *

Lewis isn't sure how long they've been walking for when Mystery finally stops. They're in the middle of a dense forest, the trees thick and tall enough to hide - from a distance, at least - what must be their destination.

From here it just looks like a wall, unnatural icy blue, that corners in strange places. The only feature is a large plaque a little above Lewis's head. It reads, _For the protection of the living, the world's evils are contained here. We will not fail in death as we did in life._ It has no visible openings.

Mystery steps confidently up to it anyway, and begins sniffing around the bottom. Lewis pushes himself off the tree he'd been leaning on to catch his breath, and walks cautiously over to him.

" _Now_ will you tell me what we're looking for?" he tries for what feels like the hundredth time.

"An entrance. Please, Lewis, just stay with me. This is important." His response is as curt and cryptic as ever.

Lewis just sighs and kneels down next to the wall, brushing his hand over it to look for seams-

-and just as quickly jerks it back. The wall doesn't just _look_ icy- it's freezing to the touch, too. "Oh, Jesus. Mystery, I _really_ don't think we're supposed to be here. What's so important that you need _me_ to-"

"Arthur," he interrupts, finally swinging his head back to pierce him with a stare. "Arthur's in there. The... thing that created this place is holding him prisoner."

" _Oh_." Immediately a series of awful images fill his head - Arthur slowly freezing to death on a floor just like this wall, too weak to even get up, still suffering from the blood loss he'd been struggling to recover from when he was taken. Frostbite taking over the bare skin against the ice, his breath getting weaker and- "Why didn't you say that _earlier?"_

"I wasn't... entirely sure. I didn't want to give you false hope. But I'm certain now - I can smell it, he was taken in through here." His paws press against the bitterly cold wall again, turning his attention back to searching for the entrance.

Lewis follows suit, barely even feeling the cold now that his mind is otherwise occupied. He feels more awake now than he has in- _weeks_ , probably, and when he puts his palms flat against the ice, it melts away almost immediately, receding into a small entryway.

He blinks and pulls his hands back, shaking them to bring some feeling back into them, and then rises and heads through the door without a second thought.

"Fascinating," he half-hears Mystery say behind him. "So it still remembers you..."

Lewis doesn't spare the odd statement much attention. He focuses on proceeding through the tunnel, and on trying to keep his hands from freezing.

"Hmm," he hears, and glances over at Mystery, who seems to be doing his own survey of the scene. "This place is shielded from the outside. Perhaps it would be safest to..."

"Is... there something wrong?"

He glances over at him. "Lewis, please do not be alarmed."

"What?" he responds, and then he blinks and there's no longer a dog standing next to him, but a towering wolflike beast, with slitted pupils in keenly intelligent eyes, a multitude of tails fanning out behind him, and a familiar question-mark collar dangling from the thick fur of his neck. _A kitsune_ , supplies some knowledge he wasn't aware he had.

_"Mystery?"_

The beast glances towards him, and he recognizes the expression in those eyes well enough. "I trust you remember I am not a dog, yes? This form... makes defending us easier. I do not take it normally, because..." he hesitates, eyes narrowing for a moment. Debating something internally, he recognizes. "I do not wish to show it to everyone. There are _things_ that can sense it far easier than my smaller form. But in this case, we are enshrouded by a veil already, and it..." his ears flick back, his head lowering, and his voice shifts to something... quiet, almost broken. "It would be better, I think, to be... prepared for an attack, here."

_Oh man, ----- lose her mind if she saw this,_ Lewis thinks, and then his brain freezes and skips back. He shakes his head, and spends a moment just staring.

"I... I think we should keep moving for now," he says eventually. "And we can talk about," he gestures vaguely at the fang-filled mouth and the gently waving tails, " _this_ , later." He says it half to Mystery and half to himself, to unstick his thoughts from whatever they're hung up on.

Mystery gives a curt nod - though he sees the relief in the way his shoulderblades relax slightly and his neck dips into a less tense posture - and the pair proceed down the hall in silence, until it opens up into a much larger room.

The inside is just as bizarre as outside, like it was constructed with the intent of disorienting visitors. The walls jerk upwards in jagged cubic shapes, the ceiling rising impossibly far up in a narrower and narrower point. Huge chains hang from the outcroppings in places, every one of them frozen over with patterns of ice crystals. Metal doors, in a similar state as the chains, appear in some of the walls, each of them with a small square next to them and some with a barred window set into the surface. In front of them stretches a huge hall, a white fog obscuring it until he can't tell where it ends.

Lewis is _really_ starting to wish he wore something warmer.

As he gazes around at the scene, he hears a frustrated growl from next to him, and turns to look. There's something comical about seeing the massive fox-beast shuffling around half-crouched with his nose to the ground, his face screwed up in concentration, but he's still too anxious to find it really funny.

"It's too cold in here," Mystery growls. "I can't smell a thing. I've lost the trail."

"So... what do we do?"

"We're just going to have to search." He stands up again. "He'll likely be deeper in."

Lewis wants to ask why he knows that. Or what this place _is_ , or why Arthur would ever have been brought here in the first place. But he can't find the words, and soon he feels himself jogging alongside Mystery as they proceed down the huge hall.

It isn't long until their progress is interrupted. A small pack of glimmering snow-white spirits dart up to them, snarling and snapping, kneeling down in threatening postures.

"Are those... foxes?"

"It would appear so," Mystery says. He responds with a snarl of his own, much louder and deeper.

The spirits are undeterred, snapping at his legs - they leave Lewis alone for the time being, thankfully. Mystery steps around them with grace, responding with a growing growl. Finally, he bows and yaps, and a flicker of red energy snaps in the air around him. The spirits fall back and cower away from him.

Lewis almost feels bad for them. They're obviously not in charge around here, and Mystery in this huge form is probably pretty intimidating if you're on the receiving end of his fangs.

Unburdened by the same concerns, Mystery relaxes and starts padding forward again. The fox spirits follow them at a distance, probably wanting to keep an eye on them but unwilling to get too close to the monster.

Lewis scans the doors as they walk past. Next to each of them is a small plaque. Some are blank, but others have a phrase inscribed on the surface. _Petty theft. Poking around. Anger issues. Too hungry._

He pauses in front of the last one. "What does this mean?"

Mystery glances at it. "I... can't say for sure."

He glances through the window, ignoring one of the fox spirits growling behind him. Inside is what looks like an emaciated child, with light blue skin and slight hollows in place of facial features. He shivers and retreats.

"It can't be too dangerous, right?" he asks, more to reassure himself than anything. "It's so close to the surface."

"I don't know, Lewis," Mystery responds.

Things get darker, lit with a blue tint by strange glowing crystals set into the walls. Lewis is leading the way, but even he isn't entirely sure how he knows where to go - he turns randomly, at times following the foxes, sometimes a dim light, others just a gut instinct. The doors become thicker, lined with chains and padlocks now. The strange labels continue. _Knew too much. Territorial. Tempting of mortals. It came to us._ He glances inside occasionally - a bat with a human head for a body, a knot of tiny snakes, an enormous bear with a hunched back; something that looks like a woman but alien, just slightly too wrong. A small doll sitting in a huge room, a shadow on the wall with nothing to cast it.

He's starting to get a sense for what this place _is_ , but one thing doesn't line up.

"Why would someone bring Arthur _here?"_ he wonders out loud.

Mystery glances over at him, but doesn't say anything.

"This is some kind of... containment facility, right? For the supernatural? But... what would they want with _him?_ He's not... he'd never..."

"I don't think we'll know that, Lewis," he says softly, "without finding whoever built this in the first place. And seeking h- them out would be unwise, at this time."

Lewis just pulls his vest a little tighter around himself and sighs. "It's weird. And we're not supposed to be here. I just don't like it."

"I know. Let's find him quickly and get out of here." 

The white fog grows thicker around them, and Lewis relies more and more on Mystery to help him identify the path. He very nearly walks headlong into the final obstacle, and when he skids to a halt and backs up, the entire world suddenly goes quiet.

Set into the formerly clear hallway is a large metal wall, dead-ending the route. Except in the wall is a door - like one you'd see on a vault, _huge_ and covered in heavy chains. A wheel sits in the center, looking far too frozen over to be usable.

"He's through there, isn't he?" Lewis says softly, staring at it.

Mystery gives the ground a cursory sniff. "Yes."

He glances to the right. This plaque is maybe the most cryptic, and most threatening, of all the ones he's seen. _Blood of the founder_ , it says solemnly. 

The wheel turns easily in his hands, the chains attached to it rattling but not providing any real resistance. The fox spirits all turn and run when they realize the door is opening. With a quiet _creak_ , the vault door swings outward and reveals a new room.

It isn't much bigger than the hallway, and the only thing inside is an icy platform atop which rests a large glass case. It's too foggy inside to make much out, just blurry colors and-

-a flash of orange.

" _Arthur!"_ Lewis cries, rushing forward. He's forced to skid to a halt halfway through the room, when an angled wall of spears shoots up from the floor, very nearly stabbing him in the chest.

Mystery's only a few paces behind him. "Hold on, I can-"

But Lewis doesn't wait for him to get rid of them. He just grabs a couple of them and _pulls_ , and they snap sideways like toothpicks in his hands, leaving an opening wide enough to step through.

Weapons keep swinging at him, but there's no force behind any of them, and they shatter like sugar glass at his touch. He comes to a stop in front of the case - _coffin_ , is what it really is, he realizes. And it's not glass but clear, thin ice, that his friend is trapped in.

Arthur's lying on his side, hugging himself loosely with his one arm, asleep or unconscious or trapped in some kind of hypnosis. His skin is almost sheet-white, and periodic faint tremors go through him, the only sign he's still alive. He's still wearing the hospital gown.

"No, no, _please_ ," Lewis says in a rushed whisper, not really knowing what it is he's pleading for, and his hands go to the surface of the ice. But the freezing surface hits like knives against his skin, and he's forced to recoil. The second time he tries, it's teeth sunk into the back of his collar that stop him. Mystery hauls him back a bit.

"What are you _doing?!"_ he cries, instinctively fighting the grip.

_"Stop-"_

_"How did you intruders get in here?"_

The third voice silences both of theirs. It's high and clear, like glass, drifting through the cold air above them. It's beautiful and it makes Lewis sick.

They both turn in unison to see a spirit hovering in the air behind them. She's tall, with glowing blue hair in a long ponytail behind her that dissolves at the end into shards of ice, a skull for a face and a long sword in her hand, trailing at her side. Everything about her, from her posture to her voice to the clothing, clearly and immediately declares her as _in charge around here_. At her heels stand three of what must be the fox spirits from earlier, but now they're bigger and more resemble Mystery, only smaller, skinnier, and with large spikes of ice in place of soft fur.

"Please, let my friend go," Lewis pleads, taking a step forward. "You're trying to contain things- he's not a threat, _please_ -"

_"Silence!"_ The ghost swings her sword out to the side, striking the wall, and the foxes growl in unison. _"I don't know what trick he's played on you, but that_ ** _thing_** _is no more or less than a hungry monster, begging to..._ " Her voice dips out for a moment, fading into a whine. She's hard to listen to, this spirit, her voice makes his head swim. " _I_ ** _won't_** _allow_ ** _anyone_** _to touch him. State your purpose here, or be..._ "

Her voice is fading again, only the tone and melody remaining, and the floor is starting to sway beneath him, all detail fading away into sheer white. Lewis notices something's wrong only moments before the world goes black.

* * *

_"I don't know what trick he's played on you, but that_ ** _thing_** _is no more or less than a hungry monster, begging to be fed with blood. I_ ** _won't_** _allow_ ** _anyone_** _to touch him. Now state your purpose here, or be imprisoned with the rest of them for aiding an escape._ "

All Mystery can do is stare. He _knows_ it's Vivi before him, can _feel_ her in the energy she radiates, but... she looks and sounds so much like Mushi that it _hurts_. All he wants is to wrap her in his tails and quell that thrumming, wild magic rushing through her, ask her what happened to do this to her, to push her back to a _hunter_... but does she even recognize him? Surely if she did, she wouldn't be threatening them, Vivi would _never_ have pointed a sword at Lewis...

Beside him he feels, more than sees, Lewis collapse. He catches him just before he hits the ground, and has decided his current course of action as soon as he tosses him onto his back.

He darts between the conjured fox spirits, pale mimics of himself, and _runs_.

As much as it pains him, and as heartbroken as Lewis will be when he wakes, he has no choice but to leave Arthur. They can't save him now. Perhaps alone, he could fight Vivi, but she's channeling all of the Ancestor's power and knowledge and he tried and failed against that once. And maybe if he was alone he'd risk it anyway, but Lewis is here and unconscious and in Vivi's current state, he has no guarantee she'll make any attempt to spare him. And even if they _could_ hold her back, what then? Arthur's only alive because she's frozen him in stasis - if they free him from that box, Mystery knows with complete certainty that he'd be gone in a few hours. He's been through too much already, and then being encased in freezing ice for this long...

_We'll come back for you_ , he calls out to the fading life behind him. _I promise_.

At least this fortress of Vivi's construction seems to remember Lewis, in some way. It's unwilling to hurt him, caving at his touch rather than lash out and cut into him. Mystery can't say the same for himself, and he can feel the sting of a dozen little cuts where daggers and spears split through his fur. All he can do is pray that the walls will prioritize letting Lewis out over keeping _him_ in. 

Somehow it does, and a surge of relief goes through Mystery when he sees the tiny entrance they slipped through is still open. He's relieved all over again to scent the cheerful, warm breeze of the surface as they break out of the tiny tunnel.

He knows the path back to Tempo intuitively. He doesn't dare stop moving until they're safely at home, and he knows there's no more running to be done.

The wards Vivi had put up around this place - back when she was alive, and cared for protecting like that - would be enough to keep a hostile spirit out. He steps carefully over the gate and manipulates the door open with his teeth, a routine that feels at once strangely distant and completely automatic - he's done this before, but never in _this_ shape.

It's only when the scent of dust and disuse reaches his nose that he realizes that without thinking, he's gone _home_. Not to Lewis's family, where he's staying - where he _should_ be staying, away from the constant reminders - but to the house they shared with Arthur and Vivi, before everything went so terribly wrong.

But a half-irrational fear teases at his hide along with the stinging wounds, and he knows he can't make another run across town to carry them back to the restaurant. What if they're still being pursued, or- no. This will have to do for now.

He hops up on Lewis's bed and lets him slip off, and only then shifts back into his smaller form, to curl up against his chest.


End file.
